Abu Dhabi GP: Verstappen edges Mercedes duo in FP3

The Red Bull driver improved with less than five minutes to go to deny Mercedes a one-two in FP3, heading Lewis Hamilton by 0.074s and Valtteri Bottas by 0.089s.

Ferrari was less competitive in terms of outright pace, as neither of its drivers lapped within four tenths of Verstappen’s benchmark, but used medium tyres instead of a second set of softs.

Hamilton was quickest after the first round of soft-tyre runs, comfortably clear of Bottas, and suffered a lock-up into the first chicane that caused him to abort his next flying lap.

He did not set a quicker time than his 1m36.640s afterwards but remained on top despite a big improvement from Bottas that brought him just 0.015s slower than Hamilton.

Verstappen had trailed Hamilton by 0.089s at this point but completed a second flying lap on his second set of softs late on to vault both Mercedes and top the last free practice session of the year.

Red Bull teammate Alex Albon backed up Verstappen in fourth, 0.361s off the pace and ahead of the medium-shod Ferraris.

An early run for Albon had been ruined in a near-miss with the Renault of Nico Hulkenberg, which was running slowly and partly on the racing line after the blind, fast Turn 16 that leads into the slow Turn 17 right-hander. Both have been summoned to the stewards as a result.

Sebastian Vettel won the Ferrari fight for fifth with a 1m36.975s ahead of Leclerc’s 1m37.010s.

Leclerc did not have a second set of softs to use as he used an extra set in FP2, having hit the wall and damaged the right rear wheel and tyre.

Behind the big three teams, Sergio Perez led the midfield battle for Racing Point and lapped within a second of Verstappen.

Daniel Ricciardo was fractionally slower in his Renault, while McLaren’s Carlos Sainz and Toro Rosso driver Pierre Gasly made it four team in the final four places in the top 10.

Session results

Cla	#	Driver		Chassis	Engine	Time
1	33	Max Verstappen		Red Bull	Honda	1'36.566
2	44	Lewis Hamilton		Mercedes	Mercedes	1'36.640
3	77	Valtteri Bottas		Mercedes	Mercedes	1'36.655
4	23	Alex Albon		Red Bull	Honda	1'36.927
5	5	Sebastian Vettel		Ferrari	Ferrari	1'36.975
6	16	Charles Leclerc		Ferrari	Ferrari	1'37.010
7	11	Sergio Perez		Racing Point	Mercedes	1'37.516
8	3	Daniel Ricciardo		Renault	Renault	1'37.615
9	55	Carlos Sainz Jr.		McLaren	Renault	1'37.691
10	10	Pierre Gasly		Toro Rosso	Honda	1'37.736
11	8	Romain Grosjean		Haas	Ferrari	1'37.768
12	26	Daniil Kvyat		Toro Rosso	Honda	1'37.963
13	4	Lando Norris		McLaren	Renault	1'38.100
14	20	Kevin Magnussen		Haas	Ferrari	1'38.198
15	18	Lance Stroll		Racing Point	Mercedes	1'38.462
16	7	Kimi Raikkonen		Alfa Romeo	Ferrari	1'38.514
17	27	Nico Hulkenberg		Renault	Renault	1'38.580
18	99	Antonio Giovinazzi		Alfa Romeo	Ferrari	1'38.782
19	63	George Russell		Williams	Mercedes	1'39.206
20	88	Robert Kubica		Williams	Mercedes	1'39.859
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